Saturday, March 14, 2009

camping

My husband grew up camping.

I did not.

He backpacked in the Grand Canyon with his grandpa. He lived in New Mexico.

I lived in hot and humid Houston.

The closest I came was staying with my cousins & my grandma in a camper WITH a shower & a toilet at Jellystone park KOA with lots of yogi bears around and a camp store where you could buy big yellow corn in little brown paper bags to feed to the various goats, geese, etc. on the property.

Then there was also the time that I went on a church family campout with my friends' Kori and Mindy's family and a whole bunch of other people from our church. There were cabins, some people brought trailers and some tents. I stayed in a tent with Kori and Mindy. It was a brand new tent as I recall. Being the city girl that I was, it didn't ever even occur to me that having a big ziploc bag full of homemade chocolate chip cookies that my mom sent with me inside the tent was a risky thing. um . . . a racoon ate THROUGH the wall of the tent to get at those cookies. I remember being impressed that my friends' dad didn't even get mad. I also remember being very sad about losing those cookies.

Oh dear!

So, I am going to venture into the world of camping as a married woman. I really want to like it. I would love to really enjoy the best of both worlds, camping some trips and nice hotels some trips as we travel as a couple and later as a family.

This is where I want to hear from YOU!

No horror stories please!
No discouragement.

What do you like about camping?
What are your favorite foods to take?
What tips do you have for successful, fun, romantic (is there such a thing?) camping?

Help a girl out. Thanks everyone! Have a great weekend! Kelly

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

How Fun! And of course camping can be romantic--there is nothing like sitting by a campfire and watching the stars together. As someone who grew up camping I can tell you that it is a whole new world when you are the adult suddenly in charge of all the planning and the packing (when you are a kid you just don't think about all that stuff). So, you will learn by experience. Don't give up if the first time isn't perfect. The second time around you will have a better idea of what to pack and not pack. And camping definitely takes practice. I would recommend starting small (short trip not too far away from a Walmart in case you realize that you have forgotten something). And be flexible. Our first camping trip when I was little was in a small borrowed pop up camper at Thanksgiving in Galveston. It was cold and rainy the whole weekend and we couldn't go outside. But we had more funny things happen that weekend that we still laugh about. I hope you guys have a ton of fun.
Mindy S.

Roxie700 said...

I love to go camping. We have a nice trailer now, but when we started we were tent campers. The most important thing to ME is being close to a bathroom.
We cook a lot of our food in foil on the camp fire. I triple wrap some meat, veggies, a bit of butter and salt and pepper cook in the fire for 30 minutes. I often use chicken or steak.
I would also say pack some OFF bug spray. Even this time of year the bugs are out there.
Have fun. Just enjoy being outside and with your fellow.

BR said...

Great to hear from you, sweetest Kelly.

Cliff and I both love camping and have always camped, it's what we do for fun. We are going to stay at one of our favorite cabins this weekend with my brother jack and his family. We will be at the starrigavan Creek Cabin - google it and imagine us there next Saturday! We will be hiking in over snow this time of year, but its a short hike (and we will probably make more than one trip to the car for our gear!) :) Cliff and I took our three little nieces to this cabin a few months ago and as soon as we got there the girls started playing "Little House in the Big Woods" and insisted on being called Mary, Laura and Carrie for the entire time. We couldn't stop giggling when Laura had the great idea to write a book about our adventures and Mary went blind.

I consider "camping" pretty much anytime I get to sleep in my sleeping bag, but Cliff only thinks its camping if your on a mountain with a big ole pack and tent strapped onto your back. He used to be a real camping snob, but he's coming around! As such, we have to be specific about the categories of camping that we use just in order to call a spade a spade and so that we aren't each picturing an upcoming camping trip with totally different expectations.

Backpacking, car camping (with a tent), and staying in a cabin are our 3 main categories of camping. We don't have an RV or camper so that's not on our radar. We like them all and we take turns doing different ones in different seasons and with different people.

If you plan a trip to Alaska, camping will certainly be in the mix!

Love you!
Betty

Sandy said...

i grew up camping!!!!!!!!! the real kind of camping (no toilets!) xo

Tawn said...

The key to camping without a shower is to warm a pan of water and wash up anyway. Hair and all. You'll feel much better, if you're not crazy about not having a shower everyday. As far as food, Anything you cook on the stove at home can be cooked on the fire. We always like to do Hobo Dinners. Make up hamburger patties. Make a foil pouch to put hamburger in, with onions, peppers, and garlic. Seal up the pouch and put in the fire until done. So yummy and easy! Have fun camping! ~Tawn

Gina said...

Oh married camping is SOOO much fun!! The key is to be prepared. We're tent campers right now, and we always go to a national park with restrooms. We have a Coleman camping stove that I use for breakfasts and we tend to cook most other meals on the grill. we stick to burgers, steaks and hotdogs. When I do baked potatoes I always cook them before we leave and then finish them off in the campfire.. YUMMY!!

I pre slice vegetables, and all the fixings and I have them all separated in to baggies for easy storage and access.

And when we go hiking, I always make up a batch of pigs in blankets... Bill loves them and they are actually tasty cold... and they're good for energy.

Enjoy!! Can't wait to see pictures and hear how it went :)

Lorilee said...

I've done both tent camping and camping trailer camping. If it is not hot and humid a tent is fine(as long as toilets and showers are nearby). Here in South Texas an airconditioned camping trailer is the way to go in the summer!
Blessings,
Lorilee

The Chatty Housewife said...

What I love about camping:
relaxed atmosphere
excitement
sun shining through the tent in am
simplicity
use what you have mentality

What I need to remind myself about camping:
late meals are ok
being grubby is fine
outhouses are cleaner than they smell

Unknown said...

Stick to "easy" camping at first. Cabins, parks with restrooms and showers. Work your way up to backpacking type camping. Finding the right balance of stuff is the key. Too little and you might be miserable to much and it gets so complicated that you lose the simplicity.
Successful camping is all about good planning beforehand (so you will be a natural) and a relaxed, go with the flow attitude when you get there. Can't wait to go camping with you guys in the big CO.